Voice controlled assistant with stereo sound from two speakers

• US 9,706,306 B1
• Filed: 02/20/2015
• Issued: 07/11/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 06/25/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: List, Timothy T.
• Primary Examiner(s): McFadden, Susan
• Application Number:
  US14/627,152
• Time in Patent Office: 872 Days
• Field of Search: 381 17
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 17/22 Interactive procedures; Man-machine interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 1/24 Structural combinations of separate transducers or of two parts of the same transducer and responsive respectively to two or more frequency ranges
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 1/26 Spatial arrangements of separate transducers responsive to two or more frequency ranges
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 2201/401 2D or 3D arrays of transducers
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 5/00 Stereophonic arrangements stereophonic pick-ups H04R9/16, H04R11/12, H04R17/08, H04R19/10
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 5/02 Spatial or constructional arrangements of loudspeakers
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 5/04 Circuit arrangements, e.g. for selective connection of amplifier inputs/outputs to loudspeakers, for loudspeaker detection, or for adaptation of settings to personal preferences or hearing impairments combinations of amplifiers H03F3/68; stereophonic systems H04S
• CPC Class Codes: H04S 3/002 Non-adaptive circuits, e.g. manually adjustable or static, for enhancing the sound image or the spatial distribution control circuits for electronic adaptation of the sound field H04S7/30

Abstract

A voice controlled assistant has two speakers to produce high quality stereo sound. The voice controlled assistant generates a first frequency portion and a second frequency portion used to produce stereo sound. The frequency portion is filtered to remove a range of frequencies, such as the low frequency range. The second frequency portion, together with the frequency portion removed from the first frequency portion, are output as sound.

Claims

1. A device comprising:

a housing;

a processor mounted within the housing, the processor to receive a first signal and a second signal;

a memory mounted within the housing and accessible by the processor;

a filter to filter the first signal into a first frequency portion and a second frequency portion;

a first speaker arranged in the housing, the first speaker having a first transducer to output the first frequency portion; and

a second speaker arranged in the housing, the second speaker having a second transducer being different in size than the first transducer, the second transducer to output the second signal and the second frequency portion.

2. The device of claim 1, wherein the second transducer is larger than the first transducer.

3. The device of claim 1, wherein the second speaker is mounted above the first speaker within the housing.

4. The device of claim 1, wherein the first and second speakers are coaxially aligned along a center axis of the housing.

5. The device of claim 1, wherein the first signal is a right audio channel signal and the second signal is a left audio channel signal.

6. The device of claim 1, wherein the filter comprises a high pass filter.

7. The device of claim 6, wherein the high pass filter filters frequencies of approximately 60 to 200 Hz from the first signal to generate the first frequency portion.

8. The device of claim 1, further comprising a speech recognition module stored in the memory and executable on the processor to analyze the first signal and the second signal to detect one or more speech utterances.

9. The device of claim 1, further comprising a wireless unit mounted within the housing, the wireless unit configured to receive the first signal and the second signal from one or more applications associated with one or more cloud services.

10. The device of claim 9, wherein the wireless unit is configured to send the first signal and the second signal to at least one of the applications.

11. The device of claim 1, wherein the housing includes a sound distribution cone for directing particular frequencies out of the housing.

12. The device of claim 1, wherein the housing includes a sound distribution cone having a conical shape with a smooth upper noise portion.

13. The device of claim 1, wherein the housing includes a sound distribution cone having a middle portion with increasing radii from top to bottom.

14. The device of claim 1, wherein the housing includes a sound distribution cone having a lower flange portion with a smooth U-shaped flange.

15. A device comprising:

a filter to generate a first frequency portion by removing a second frequency portion from a first signal, the first signal representative of a first portion of an audio signal;

a first transducer to output the first frequency portion; and

a second transducer to output the second frequency portion and a second signal, the second signal representative of a second portion of the audio, the second transducer being different in size than the first transducer.

16. The device of claim 15, wherein the first transducer is associated with a first speaker and the second transducer is associated with a second speaker.

17. The device of claim 15, wherein the first signal is a right audio signal and the second signal is a left audio signal.

18. The device of claim 15, wherein the filter comprises a high pass filter.

19. The device of claim 15, further comprising:

a hollow housing having a lower skeletal member and an upper skeletal member; and

wherein the first transducer is mounted within the lower skeletal member and the second transducer is mounted within the upper skeletal member.

20. The device of claim 19, further comprising a microphone array mounted within the upper skeletal member.